There is plenty of proof since Trump took office that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is exactly the leader our country needs right now. But the instances of awesome have been coming particularly fast the last several days, and it’s the holiday season, so I thought we might all enjoy indulging in a little unabashed Pelosi worship.
Let’s take a look first at some of the appreciation she’s been getting in the press.
From the Boston Herald:
Pelosi’s maneuver undercuts righteous stance
From AP News:
Pelosi: Power of Gavel means Trump is ‘impeached forever’
And my favorite recent headline, from NBC News. I literally laughed out loud—and loudly—in a coffee shop filled with strangers when I read this one. A gutsy move if I ever saw one, killing them with expert kindness:
Pelosi invites Trump to deliver the State of the Union two days after impeaching him
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And now a quick recap of the Speaker’s schedule, because so much has been happening, it’s easy to miss or forget something.
As the AP reports,
The past week alone, the Democratic leader delivered a $1.4 trillion government funding package to stop a shutdown, pushed through the bipartisan U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, and passed her party’s plan to lower prescription drug costs. In between, she led a congressional delegation to Europe for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.
And on Wednesday, she impeached the president.
Now that’s a full work week!
Speaker Pelosi also provided 2020 voters with a telling visual of GOP dysfunctionality:
Even if the bills she cited as having passed the House only to become “stuck in the Senate” don’t quite represent utterly unprecedented inaction, it remains true that McConnell has been nothing if not obstructionist of Democrats’ legislative efforts, to a truly shocking and disrespectful degree. This admittedly gimmicky visual will hopefully drive that point home to voters, especially those who remain undecided.
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Finally, let’s celebrate some of Nancy Pelosi’s best moments of the past week.
Here she is taking time out of a busy schedule to publicly support Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, widow of the longest-serving congressperson, John Dingell, after Trump attempted to shame his memory at his most recent rally.
Here she is, delivering what I’m certain will go down in history as one of her defining pronouncements: “I’m never afraid, and I’m rarely surprised.”
And who could forget or fail to love her swift, authoritative silencing of unprofessional applause from (perhaps understandably) overeager Democratic members of Congress when the “aye” impeachment votes carried the day? There is a shorter and more to-the-point clip of this moment from USA Today, but I take issue with their sexist characterization of the first female Speaker maintaining order in the House as a “stern glare”, so I’m sharing instead this slightly longer clip from The Guardian:
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Sadly, Nancy Pelosi has not always gotten the credit she deserves, either on the left of the right. It looks like this past week is starting to change that, as even the naysayers have begun—finally—to recognize how deftly the Speaker wields her power. Here’s what Politico had to say in an article of theirs this past Friday:
Even after Democrats won back the House majority in November 2018, some members of Pelosi’s own caucus questioned whether she should be their leader and demanded term-limits on her second turn as speaker. Now, even her loudest Democratic critics are trumpeting Pelosi’s job performance.
The article also describes how “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is heading into the holidays emboldened.” To which I say: As she should! And I don’t think it would be going too far to say that her supporters—a large part of the country—are feeling emboldened, as well.
And no matter how impeachment eventually plays out, that’s a good feeling!